Tracking Attacks on the NLRB

https://onlabor.org/new-series-tracking-attacks-on-the-nlrb/

February 16, 2024

By Benjamin Sachs

Benjamin Sachs is the Kestnbaum Professor of Labor and Industry at Harvard Law School and a leading expert in the field of labor law and labor relations.

With worker organizing and collective action on the rise—and garnering greater and greater popular support—employers are deploying a new(ish) response: attacking the constitutionality of the National Labor Relations Board and thus the nation’s system of labor law. These attacks come from a range of prominent employers (to date: SpaceX, Trader Joe’s, and Amazon) and are multi-pronged (to date: that Board members and ALJs are impermissibly shielded from Presidential removal, that Board adjudications violate the VII Amendment right to jury trial, that the Board is a separation-of-powers violation, and that it presents a major-questions-doctrine or non-delegation problem). Although the claims may have seemed outlandish a handful of years ago, the current Supreme Court’s hostility to the administrative state requires that we take them seriously. In that spirit, we are launching a new OnLabor series, Tracking Attacks on the NLRB, that John Fry will author. All of our coverage of the subject will also be available through the Featured Coverage section of the blog